But I must--I must see the world; I must see the great mother-church in Alexandria, and the patriarch, and his clergy.

If they can serve God in the city, why not I?
I could do more for God there than here ....

Not that I despise this work--not that I am ungrateful to you--oh, never, never that!--but I pant for the battle.

Let me go! I am not discontented with you, but with myself.

I know that obedience is noble; but danger is nobler still.
If you have seen the world, why should not I?
If you have fled from it because you found it too evil to live in, why should not I, and return to you here of my own will, never to leave you?
And yet Cyril and his clergy have not fled from it....' Desperately and breathlessly did Philammon drive this speech out of his inmost heart; and then waited, expecting the good abbot to strike him on the spot.